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"Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen."-Theodore Roosevelt, 1917

"It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Isaona i tumungo’ ya ha sedi, ki ayo i mismo umisagui hao. Greater is the fault of he who allows the injustice upon himself. "-Chamorro proverb

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves." -Jose Rizal

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." -Bishop Desmond Tutu

Disclaimer: This is not a legal blog. No opinion or statement should be perceived as legal advice. All posts are the opinion of the author or contributors who are expressing their First Amendment Rights.

Willy Tan and Governor Fitial in 2011 at a planning meeting to discuss erecting a mini city at Marpi

Willy Tan, Governor Fitial's former boss and notorious labor abuser, met with the governor and his cabinet to request that Saipan be cleaned up for the tourists. Tan will be raking in the dollars by bringing in Chinese tourists through charter flights and whatever other deal he is currently working on.

It was reported that Tan went to the 3-hour meeting with a dozen or so photos of Saipan eyesores that he wants cleaned up for the sake of tourism. Considering the CNMI is broke and Willy Tan is a multi-millionaire, why doesn't Tan fund and oversee the clean-up? After all, some of the worst eyesores are the abandoned garment factories, including some of Tan's own.

Tan also owns the Saipan Tribune and the Fiesta Resort. According to some hotel employees, Fiesta Resort services include an organized prostitution service for Japanese and other tourists. In fact, one Trip Advisor comment referred to the prostitution service that the hotel offers:

"I showed up at the hotel at 11:35 Am to check-in. I was told there was a room available even though check-in was not normally until 2 PM. After I checked out I noticed an extra fee of $170. When I inquired about this fee, I was told it was for the rate for the night before I checked since I checked in before 2 PM. The manager claimed it was hotel policy to charge for the previous night if checking in before 2PM. I could find no reference to this policy on their website or in the fine print on my reservation. I have checked in a 7 AM many times at other hotels and have never been charged for the previous night. The Fiesta didn't even tell me about such a charge when I checked in. This is such a scam. If this was in the US mainland, I would have sued for illegal business practice and alerted the states attorney general.
I was also asked if I would like an "invited guest" for my room upon check-in. I can only imagine that this is a prostitution service offered by the hotel." Stayed May 2012, traveled on business

Maybe Tan could clean up his hotel?

You have to love that Tan had the nerve to request that the press "talk positively about the island." He said:

"There have been a lot of negative things reported about the island so in my opinion, we’ve got to balance that,” he added.

"Politics should be set aside and businesses should be able to do whatever needs to be done before everybody sinks."

It appears that Tan is joining the likes of Angel Demapan and former governor Froilan Tenorio who are appealing to stop the impeachment procedures of Governor Fitial. Perhaps Tan still thinks he has the power to manipulate the politics of the CNMI as he did during the peak days of the garment factory boom. Few can forget Willy Tan's sleazy dealings with Jack Abramoff , and Tan's famously boasting that he had former House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) in his pocket as an undercover camera taped his conversation.

It is also interesting that Governor Fitial refused to talk to the press about the meeting. Concerning the cabinet meeting with Tan, the governor was quoted as telling the press, "You are not invited."

The Marianas Variety reported that the governor was aided by his DPS security guard Captain Nekaifes in evading the press by exiting through the back door. Perhaps the governor has forgotten that thumbing his nose at open government is one reason the people have rallied for his impeachment.

At least one government agency may be cleaned up. It was announced that Governor Fitial was going to appoint Sgt. James Deleon Guerrero as acting DPS commissioner. It will take a great deal of effort to turn around the department that is teeming with problems. DPS employs numerous officers with criminal records, and boasts high ranking officers who serve the governor and his political allies rather than serving the public.

It will be a challenge to bring in a steady stream of tourists to an island that is considered unsafe. The CNMI has a long list of unsolved murders, rapes, brutal assaults and a host of other crimes, including those committed against tourists.

The legislators have their own plan for cleaning up the island beginning with the governor's impeachment, which should greatly reduce the number of dirty deals and corrupt acts.

18
comments:

Anonymous
said...

"Tan will be raking in the dollars by bringing in Chinese tourists."

I hope so. Do you know who else will be raking in the dollars? Businesses. Those businesses will be hiring more people who also would like to "rake in the dollars". Tan is absolutely correct about cleaning up the island Wendy. Instead of criticizing Willie Tan perhaps you should congratulate him for creating hundreds of new jobs for the precious contract workers!

7:11 Perhaps his charter flights will help the economy and some local businesses. If Willy Tan is involved, the vast majority of profits will be in his pockets.

Yes, for years I have been writing on this site that the island should be cleaned up to attract more tourists. Of course, renovation and beautification is a good thing. It is also very funny that Tan has to take photos to a cabinet meeting to convince the Marianas Visitors Bureau and others that the island is a mess. Are these cabinet members, the governor and the MVA all blind? Tan has the money -let him oversee and fund the cleanup.

Cleaning up the island physically is only a start. Cleaning up the dirty corruption, having a reliable power system, health care system and public safety are also important elements that have to be in place to attract tourists. The nonstop stories of tourists being robbed and foreigners being murdered does nothing to attract tourism. I guess Tan is trying to shut up the press so innocent tourists won't know about the problems. Rather pathetic.

And Tan's son was heading the MVA and his suggestions as to anything was not acted on. (I am not his fan either)but even a few times it was mentioned by some others about the tourists spots and nothing was done. All want to rely on "volunteers" instead of enforcing the littering laws (because they are too expensive etc)And to 7:11, there is a need to create new jobs for the residents first, not the contract workers.I am not against them as they7 are needed to handle the jobs the locals will not take for the unlivable wages, or because of the type of job such as service related or janitorial. I have not much time to get into this but this is a start.

Let's see. All the leaders who live on the island day in and day out need Willy Tan to come and tell them it looks like hell? Anyone can see that. Everyone has complained. They should've cleaned it up a long time ago. Better yet, the companies that left the abandoned buildings should've been made to get rid of them or maintain them. The public restrooms should always be kept cleaned. Isn't that the job of DPW? Raise some revenue (taxes) and get the job done.

FBI must eye on TAN...he is here to help his fan.he can corrupt whole impeachment panel...its time to investigate him...cnmi worse situation by Tan and his fan..full of corruption....its time to go monkey house will fully willy and ur tan gov. sorry for u guys.

Not every government official who has been associated with Fitial or worked for him is his “puppet” or “minion”. Many are just trying to serve the people as best they can.

Likewise, as you have noted, not every one of the “Noble 9” is a genuine reformer or good government advocate. Many just jumped on the impeachment train to avoid getting run over by it, and things will be no different if Fitial is impeached.

As for Willy, my guess is that he has been investigated so thoroughly that he is now squeaky clean.

The civil labor cases against him happened some two decades ago. Since then his factories were subject to social compliance monitoring, and after they were forced to shut down due to changes in federal customs tariffs and immigration law, Tan Holdings has continued to invest in the CNMI.

This is precisely what we need to create economic opportunities for all CNMI residents, native and immigrant alike.

1:47 Are you referring to the comment made at 7:31 by anonymous? Tan is not "squeaky clean" just because he was not prosecuted. The Tan's are working with Fitial to enrich themselves (again) I would guess they will be pushing Marpi development. In a January 6th article in the Saipan Tribune, Jerry Tan was saying that with the flights from China there was a need for more hotel room. He claimed there were only 3,000 hotel rooms on Saipan and there has to be more open to support tourist industry. In the same article he praised the foreign workers and said that the "threshold for the number of foreign workers that would be allowed in the Northern Marianas should be increased in order to grow the economy." All statements that suggest the Tans (and Fitial) are planning another big project in addition to pushing E-Land’s Group development and hotel buyouts.

Tan contributed to the mess in the islands. He was the top labor abuser (made the record books for the largest fine) and few of his victims were ever made whole. Of course he will continue to invest in the CNMI. He makes money and his old pals Fitial and Inos (both worked for Tan) hold positions of power.

he makes money and invests in the CNMI the CNMI benefits and the Tans make money... what a concept. here is an idea you might like, let's have the Tans pull all their investments from the CNMI, take all their jobs and businesses out of the CNMI. Then you will get those nasty, evil Tans out of here.......oh but the hundreds of jobs their businesses provided and the millions of dollars they infuse into the CNMI will all go away. But hey the CNMI will be rid of those evil business men who provide jobs but have the audacity to make money....evil I say evil!

is the point you are trying to make that the Tans are doing something illegal? if so bring the alleged illegalities to the attention of the authorities. If you don't like what they have done in the past that is different. If the Tans and their current businesses are operating legitimately then good for them, their employees, the customers they serve and the CNMI. I hope they make as much money as they can while operating businesses in accordance with the law, isn't that what we want all who invest in a business to do? if they aren't doing things legally then the authorities can deal with it IF and WHEN it happens, in the meantime good luck to them.

Willie Tan surrendered his US citizenship to avoid prosecution in the Abramoff affair and spent years is PI and HK. The dream clean-up team includes the usual suspects, Willie, Fitial, Marianne Pierce, Jerry, and likely Bruce Bateman to take notes because Lynn isn't here and Fitial's cabinet can barely write.